Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Psalm 25:1) (Of David) To You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
When we last left David, his house had been surrounded at night by Saul's servants who had the intention of killing him the next morning. There have since been two psalms of his asking the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. It is the opinion of Skip Andrews who wrote the chronological study I am following, that he may have written this one at that time as well.
David began his psalm by saying that he lifted up his soul to the Lord. He couldn't literally and physically do that, of course, but his meditations and prayers he directed up to God. He gave himself and his circumstances to God as He was his only defense.
(2) O my God, I trust in You; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me.
David put his trust in the Lord. It's not that David was ever ashamed to call on his Lord, but his point was that he never be so forsaken by God as to have occasion for shame that he had trusted in a God who was unable to help him. I don't believe that David could ever have such shame, but it might be seen by his enemies that he had put his trust in an unreliable source. Let him not be shamed by them by allowing his enemies to triumph over him.
(3) Yea, let none who wait on You be ashamed; let them be ashamed who transgress without cause.
David prayed that none who waited on the Lord ever be ashamed, but rather the ones who sinned without cause should be brought to shame.
(4) Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. (5) Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You the God of my salvation, on You do I wait all the day.
David asked that the Lord show him His ways and teach him in the way he should go. He asked to be led by the Lord in His truth, for God was his only salvation, and he would wait on him all day long, or continually. He would not be shamed or rushed in doing something on his own, but desired to wait on the Lord to lead him.
(6) Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindness, for they are of old.
It's not as if God had to be prompted to remember anything. But David's point was that the Lord had always been merciful, loving, and kind, to him, that He had always been so from the beginning, and he prayed that the Lord continue with that same mercy and lovingkindness.
(7) Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Your mercy remember me for Your goodness's sake, O Lord.
David asked that the Lord not remember the sins of his youth or his present transgressions, but forgive them according to His great mercy and goodness, because that was who He was, and it had nothing to do with David's worthiness.
(8) Good and upright the Lord; therefore He will teach sinners in the way.
Because the Lord was good and upright and could be nothing other than that, He would teach His people who are all sinners in His ways, that they might be good and upright.
(9) The meek He will guide in judgment, and the meek He will teach His way.
The meek and humble the Lord would guide and teach according to His judgment. The Lord searches the hearts of men to know the humble hearts that are willing to come to Him and be led and taught. It's not that the Lord couldn't make anyone, even the hard-hearted, do as He would have them do, but as far as being led and taught by Him, to walk in His ways, He gives free will to all and will lead and teach His ways to only those who humble themselves before Him.
(10) All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
To those who keep the word of the Lord, all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. Even in affliction, God, in His mercy, uses those to bring us to a closer dependence on and relationship with Him, and He works all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).
(11) For Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
David asked the Lord to forgive his great iniquity, not because he deserved it, but because of the loving mercy that was the nature of the Lord. At this point in the accounts of David, we haven't been made aware of any great sin of David's, but then all sin against God and His commandments is great. It might be that this psalm belongs at a later time chronologically when David had greatly sinned.
(12) What man is he who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He shall choose. (13) His soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth.
Whatever man who feared the Lord, one who had reverence and a heart ready to submit to His authority and obey Him with cheerfulness, that man the Lord would teach in which way he should choose, the Lord's way. And because the Lord directed his paths, his soul would be at ease and at peace because he could completely trust in the Lord. He who fears God has nothing else to fear. His descendants shall inherit the earth. God remembered Isaac for the sake of Abraham, and Jacob for the sake of Isaac. Sons of righteous men have an advantage coming into the world. That's not to say that they can't reject God, but as the prodigal son returned to his father, so sons of righteous men may return to the truth of God. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Imagine the advantage we may have been born into because generations before us were righteous people who prayed for their posterity. And for those who do not have biological posterity, there are countless opportunities for spiritual posterity. May the Lord make us the joyful parents of many spiritual children!
(14) The secret of the Lord is with them who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.
There are secrets of the Lord that He will show those who fear Him and follow Him, that none can understand unless they themselves love and reverence and follow the Lord. Who can understand the Holy Spirit within us unless they have experienced it within themselves? That peace in times of trouble, that general joy because we know we are in the hands of our Lord, the fact that we need not fear because our Lord goes before us, and our confidence that we know where we will spend eternity; how can the ungodly understand those things? Just as we do not fear when we die or when our loved ones who are believers die, as 1 Thessalonians 4:13 says, "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep (meaning dead), that you do not sorrow as others who have no hope." However, 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to "...be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." It is our duty to tell them, but until they have actually experienced those secrets of the Lord and His Holy Spirit, words cannot fully describe it.
(15) My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
David proclaimed that he always looked toward the Lord as he put all his trust in Him alone, for he knew that God would show him the way, and if he ever got entangled in a situation, God would deliver him out of it.
(16) Turn Yourself to me and have mercy on me for I am desolate and afflicted. (17) The troubles of my heart are enlarged. O bring me out of my distresses!
David always looked to the Lord with hope and expectation, and he wished for the Lord to look upon him and see his troubles and his need for the Lord's deliverance. The troubles that plagued his heart were many and overwhelming, and he pleaded with the Lord to bring him out of his distress.
(18) Look upon my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins.
David pleaded with the Lord to look upon his affliction and pain, and this time he added a plea to forgive all his sins. Whether he was conscious of a particular sin at this point or not, he may have thought that the affliction had come upon him because of some sin of his, and his desire was that the Lord forgive him of that.
(19) Consider my enemies for they are many, and they hate me with cruel hatred.
David asked the Lord to consider how many enemies he had who hated him with cruel hatred and without cause which made it all the more cruel and unjust. Perhaps his point was that there were so many that it was impossible for him to overcome them unless the Lord intervened and delivered him.
(20) O keep my soul and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
David prayed that the Lord save him from sin and keep him alive and deliver him from his enemies. He ended his psalm the way he began it, asking the Lord to not let him be shamed for putting his trust and confidence in the Lord.
(21) Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on You.
I believe this was meant to be a prayer asking for integrity and uprightness, the Lord's way, in order to preserve himself, for he depended on the Lord.
(22) Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles.
Finally, David extended his prayer to all of Israel, that the Lord deliver Israel out of all its troubles.
Psalm 25 is the first psalm that David wrote in an alphabetical arrangement in which each verse begins with a subsequent letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from alef to tav, from A to Z, so to speak. Such psalms usually had 22 verses corresponding with 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. David appears to be the first to use such an arrangement, and his purpose was probably to make it a more visually, as well as lyrically, beautiful song. However, the method came to be used to aid in memory and recitation. David wrote seven such acrostic psalms--25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145. Psalms 9 and 10 together form an acrostic, so David probably meant for them to be a single unit. Occasionally, in these psalms the order of the letters is slightly changed or some of the letters are omitted, but the general structure is observed. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, wrote that verse 22 of this psalm was out of the alphabetical order and didn't appear to be part of the acrostic arrangement. He believed that David added that prayer at the end of his psalm.
